Winchester father-of-two who died features in documentary

A heartbreaking account from Hughie Freeland's wife, Rosie, revealed the couple were given the devastating diagnosis after Hughie had experienced months of pain in his groin. An x-ray highlighted a broken hip which he later discovered was caused by giant cell-rich osteosarcoma weakening the bone.

Despite undergoing a hip replacement, surgery to remove and rebuild half his pelvis and several rounds of chemotherapy, Hughie died in April 2022, leaving young sons Rory, then five, and Rafferty, one.

READ MORE: Scientists investigating new treatments for chronic pain in cancer survivors

Hughie with his kids, Rory and Rafferty (Image: Contributed) Sharing their story to help accelerate life-saving research, Rosie said: “It’s impossible to think about what we have been through as a family and what we are still going through. Hughie was a young, healthy, fit person but as we discovered, cancer can affect anyone’s life, at any time, so we really have no choice other than to unite against it and help support the scientists to keep making new discoveries.” 

Stand Up To Cancer is a joint fundraising campaign from Cancer Research UK and Channel 4. It takes developments from the lab and accelerates them into new tests and treatments to help more people beat the disease. 

Rosie said: “We had just started thinking of having another baby when Hughie started experiencing groin pain around February 2020, that he thought was from not stretching properly.”

Two months later the pair were delighted to find out they were expecting their second baby. Marathon runner, Hughie was still in pain though and had developed a limp, so he went to A&E where doctors told him he had broken his hip.

But further tests revealed something far worse.

Hughie was one of just five people each year in England to be diagnosed with a rare type of bone cancer called giant cell-rich osteosarcoma (GCRO).

Several rounds of chemotherapy seemed to have cured his cancer, but this was not to be.

SEE ALSO: Number of people diagnosed with cancer rises 5% in a year, figures show

A few months later Hughie’s pain returned and tests revealed the cancer had come back in the same place. More surgery followed to remove and rebuild half his pelvis which left him with limited movement when he came home. He had three months of chemotherapy and was once again told there was no evidence of cancer.

When the pain returned once more two months later, scans showed the disease had spread to Hughie’s lungs and spine.

Rosie said: “The doctors said it was terminal and there was nothing more they could do. Hughie couldn’t do the things he wanted to do or be the father he wanted to be and I remember him saying: ‘I’m not going to see the boys grow up.’

“I was frightened to tell Rory what was going on but I had to say that the doctors couldn’t make daddy better.”

Hughie took his last breath aged 45, on April 10 2022.